Automators 19: Shortcuts Updates
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In episode 19 of Automators David and I dive into recent updates to Shortcuts.
David has recently updated his Siri Shortcuts Field Guide</a
, and if you listen to the podcast there’s a discount code you can use to get a $10 discount - he’s added a lot of videos which are great!
https://youtu.be/Hlw0f_yRKRM
In the episode I talked about my backup and restore setup for Shortcuts - the thing that saved me when I “lost” hundreds of Shortcuts! First of all, you can find out how many shortcuts you have with this Shortcut: Count & List Shortcuts</a
. It explicitly ignores any untitled shortcuts - as those are ones which I created once to use and haven’t got around to deleting. The next step is toBackup Shortcuts</a
- I chose to do this as an archive, because it simplifies the process in the next shortcut - <a href=”https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/be7ca75a462748388f70ad10c07957d0”
Install Missing Shortcut</a . Even if you aren’t having problems with your Shortcuts it never hurts to back them up, this way if you like me get stuck in a corner due to betas then you can uninstall and reinstall with no qualms.
https://youtu.be/zWs6EiPTwwo
When we were talking about the 2.2 update and what it will bring to Notes, I mentioned you could use a shortcut to handle the possibility of multiple notes
- in fact you can use one Shortcut to handle this possibility with anything. <a href=”https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/f2f0cac55a094588806c668b7f63402e”
Handle Multiple</a
is a mini shortcut which lets you handle possible multiple inputs - if it just has one, be that a note, file, contact, or indeed anything, it returns it, otherwise it lets you choose and returns the chosen item. It’s quite clever that you can provide input to a shortcut without it needing to be able to accept it - this keeps it out of your share sheet. To set this up though I did enable that to use the magic variables for Shortcut Input, and then I turned it off again.
Automators Episode 19: Shortcuts Updates</a